The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires all public school teachers be properly certified and have documented expertise in the subjects they teach. New Jersey has always done well under the federal rule, as the state's own certification requirements have similar demands.

"It tells us the vast majority of our teachers hold the credentials we expect them to hold, " said state Education Commissioner Lucille Davy, who announced the results of the teacher survey, which was the sixth annual, at a monthly meeting of the state Board of Education.

"Today we can proudly say we are mere fractions of one percentage point away from an across-the-board HQT rate of 100 percent," she said. "That being said, there are other things that go into the determination of teacher effectiveness and qualify. That, I think, becomes the next level."

The survey of nearly 88,000 teachers in 10 content areas showed that 99.7 percent of New Jersey teachers are qualified in the subjects they teach. Only about 263 failed to qualify.

The data also shows that economically disadvantaged schools are catching up when it comes to teacher quality. The percentage of classes taught by highly qualified teachers in high-poverty schools is 99.1 percent; in 2004-05, poor schools were a full 10 percentage points behind their more well-off counterparts.

In some local districts, however, school officials said that while the highly qualified designation "sounds good," it may not mean much.

In Linden, where school superintendent Rocco Tomazic said 100 percent of his teachers are highly qualified, he said most licensed teachers are automatically "highly qualified."

"If I have a license to teach a class, why do I need an additional requirement?"he asked.

Tomazic said one of the biggest issues for districts is high school special education, where teachers have to be qualified both in special ed and in the particular subject, such as math, that they are teaching. He said has had to move staff around to reach the mark.

"We are mindful to find people who meet the qualification, but I'm very thin. If I lose a teacher or two, I may have difficulty replacing them," he said. "I feel good that we're at 100 percent, but I know how hard it is and how fragile it is."